Loading, please wait...
Details
LOT 0976
Babylonian Large Rock Crystal Bead Group
1ST MILLENNIUM B.C.
1 1/8 - 1 5/8 in. (68 grams total, 30-42 mm).
A trio of large rock crystal beads: two similar pillow-shaped beads with a lozenge to both faces, drilled twice for suspension; a stylised flower head with central hole for suspension. [3]
Provenance
Acquired in the 1980s.
From the collection of a West London, UK, gentleman.
VETTING:
TimeLine Auctions follows a vetting process to ensure the authenticity and legality of all items, reinforcing our commitment to integrity and responsible trading. Each antiquity, antique, and coin lot undergoes thorough examination by a vetting committee of at least ten external specialists, professional trade association members, scientists, and archaeologists: Our Vetting Process
AUCTIONS:
TimeLine is a leading auction house specialising in antiquities, ancient art, collectables, natural history, coins, medals, and books. Our auctions offer museums, collectors, historians, and enthusiasts the opportunity to acquire unique and historically significant pieces.
RELATED LOTS
-
Central Asian Eagle and Snake Compartmented Seal Pendant
23rd-20th century B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £195
A copper-alloy compartmented stamp seal formed as a geometric style eagle with spread wings, a coiled snake gripped in its talons; suspension loop to reverse. 17.6 grams, 47 mm
1980s-early 1990s collection, UK. -
Mesopotamian Pictographic Administrative Tablet
Uruk III, circa 3000 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £4,940
A bifacial, lentoid-section rectangular clay tablet with rounded corners and short sides, medial horizontal line to each face, with hand-drawn pictographs above and below, a count of sheep and caprids. 42 grams, 66 mm wide
Specialised collection of cuneiform texts, the property of a London gentleman and housed in London before 1992. Thence by descent to family members. Examined by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert FBA (1926-2011), historian, archaeologist, and specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The collection is exceptional for the variety of types, including some very rare and well preserved examples. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11637-198551.
Early writing was used primarily as a means of recording economic data; this tablet likely records deliveries and distributions of grain. At the end of the 4th millennium B.C., written language developed in Mesopotamia as pictographs, later evolving into abstract forms called cuneiform. Pictographs were drawn in the clay with a pointed implement. Circular impressions alongside the pictographs represented numerical symbols. Cuneiform (meaning wedge-shaped) script was written by pressing a reed pen or stylus with a wedge-shaped tip into a clay tablet. -
Cuneiform Tablet Fragment Group
3rd-2nd millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £286
A group of five cuneiform ceramic tablet fragments, each comprising at least one face of cuneiform text or pictographs, three are accounting texts of about 3000; one of the fragments is late Old Babylonian; the fifth fragment is anepigraphic. 55 grams total, 25-33 mm
Specialised collection of cuneiform texts, the property of a London gentleman and housed in London before 1992. Thence by descent to family members. Examined by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert FBA (1926-2011), historian, archaeologist, and specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This small collection is exceptional for the variety of types, including some very rare and well preserved examples.